


Tijuana

by tinkertoysdamn



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Banter, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Dubious Consent, F/M, Hydra (Marvel), Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, It's Funny Until It's Not, M/M, Minor Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson, Mood Whiplash, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Snuff, Some Humor, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Steve Rogers Feels, Threats of Rape/Non-Con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-06
Updated: 2018-04-06
Packaged: 2019-04-19 02:00:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14226657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinkertoysdamn/pseuds/tinkertoysdamn
Summary: Nick Fury sends the Avengers to clear out a Hydra cell and in the process discover some old films made by the Red Skull.  The whole thing is kind of funny, until it's not.





	Tijuana

**Author's Note:**

> I have not written any fic in forever so I may be a bit rusty. This was inspired by some of the Hydra Trash Party stuff going around but I don't think it really qualifies. Just saying that it explains some of the warnings. 
> 
> Written way too quickly, in practically one pass just like most of my oneshots.
> 
> There is a pretty clear line of demarcation between the funny banter stuff and the dark stuff, so if you want to stop feel free.

The intel led them here, to this dark remote corner of Poland where the stars shone more brightly without competition from city lights. The unassuming concrete bunkers dotted among the trees cloaked terrible secrets about ethically dubious research. It wasn’t the usual sort of target for the Avengers but Fury wanted to send Hydra a message.

The raid went smoothly, it was stealthy at first but it quickly degenerated into a full on slog fest once Bruce Banner let the Hulk loose. Hydra minions scattered before the onslaught; the ones lucky enough to escape the Hulk found themselves running into Captain America’s shield or Thor’s hammer.

With the bulk of the agents taken care of, the Avengers made their way inside the bunker. “Fury says what we’re looking for is divided among two different consoles,” Steve said as he led the group inside the massive underground compound. “Widow and I will take the left hallway—“An unlucky Hydra agent turned the corner and, without breaking his stride, Steve clobbered him in the face. The minion collapsed in a heap, a puppet with his strings cut. Hulk was sent into a raucous peal of laughter. 

Steve ignored his teammate, continuing to disseminate strategy: “Hawkeye and Thor the right. Iron Man and Hulk will look for stragglers.”

“Geez, Cap,” Clint complained, “you’ve been de-thawed for a month and you’ve already taken away my work wife.”

Thor cocked an eyebrow. “Work wife?”

The Hulk stopped laughing, eyes suddenly intent on Steve and Natasha. 

“A co-worker you’re close to,” Natasha explained. She hit Clint with her shoulder like she was telling him off for starting shit. 

Sensing the intense green stare boring into his back Steve glanced back over his shoulder. “Not that kind of close, big guy.”

With that reassurance the Hulk relaxed and so did the rest of the team. Bruce may have respected Steve Rogers but the Hulk respected Captain America, the Avengers losing that dynamic could be… catastrophic. 

Thor grinned in sudden understanding. “Like a shield maiden?”

Steve and Natasha shared a “are these guys for real” side-eye. “Sure, sure Thor.” The solider patted his friend on the back because there was just no other response to that. 

And true to her nature, Natasha could not resist pushing it. “Although he does come over sometimes to eat Chinese and gossip about boys.”

“Boys?” Tony asked. “As in multiple?”

“Not you,” Steve said, pointing a finger right at Tony’s chest. Then he turned to Hulk. “Sometimes you.” The big green guy preened at the attention. “Anyway, back to the mission at hand. We need to be able to make the rendezvous with Fury.”

“Wait.” Now Tony’s curiosity killed the cat mode was on and it did not want to switch off. He hovered around Steve’s shoulder like a restless child demanding attention. “She was serious about boys. What boy is she talking about? Tell Papa Tony who you’ve been seeing Steve, it’s not that guy with the flying backpack is it?”

Steve shoved Tony away, giving him the bird and a single word order: “Focus.” 

Banter aside they really did have a mission to fulfill. The teammates did as they were told; Hulk and Iron Man enjoyed taking out a small group of Hydra minions attempting to escape in a giant drill while Hawkeye and Thor found their console. Captain America and Black Widow on the other hand had a harder time finding theirs.

The corridor to the left had led down to a bank of testing rooms and several flights of stairs. All industrial, all cold and all plastered with Hydra iconography. “Do they really need to put the Hydra on everything?” Natasha asked.

“They were a Nazi subdivision,” Steve reminded her, “those guys were obsessed with labeling. Have you seen the newsreels?” It turned out that the computer they needed was at an unassuming security station two floors below the surface. Not quite a full room of its own, there was a dividing wall between the station and the rest of the hall. While Natasha worked her hacking magic Steve sent their remaining teammates their coordinates. 

By the time the others arrived, Natasha was finishing up the last few folders. “Why don’t you just download the entire hard-drive?” Tony asked. “It’d be a hell of a lot faster.”

“Not always,” Natasha pointed out. “I don’t have enough room on the portable and we don’t need Hydra’s cafeteria menu.” 

“I bet they make a killer sauerbraten,” Tony said, he bent down so he was at Natasha’s level and stage-whispered: “You should have used Stark tech.”

“Not with what you were charging,” she retorted. With a flick of the mouse she brought up a folder labeled “FILM.” “Last one and then Hawkeye’s buying dinner.”

“Why me?” Clint asked.

“Because it’s your turn,” Steve said. No one argued with Steve when it came to turns except for Tony because Tony had a death wish. 

Natasha turned her head. “Okay, I’m opening up the first one so we can see if downloading any of this is worth it.” She clicked the mouse.

The video went to full screen revealing black and white film stock. The grain on the footage was pretty severe, a single hair dangled in the corner. The film was silent and depicted what appeared to be a Hydra office. The camera was planted in one corner to show as much as possible. Standing in the center of the room was an all too familiar figure. Natasha hit pause.

Clint shook his head. “That can’t be the Red Skull,” he said. “This has got to be faked.”

“Who fakes hair in the gate?” Tony asked. “Steve?”

“It’s Schmidt all right,” Steve confirmed, eyes fixed on the screen. “Let it play.”

With another click the film started again. The door opened and two Hydra soldiers led a man, dressed in a Captain America costume, into the room. The man had his hands cuffed behind his back. One of the soldiers kicked the back of the bound man’s knees and he was forced to kneel at the Red Skull’s feet. 

“Is that you, Cap?” Clint asked.

“No, the costume is fake,” Tony said. Natasha hit pause as he pointed to the screen. “The cowl is attached not detached and the fabrication is all wrong.” Natasha raised an eyebrow. “What, like none of you had Captain America posters growing up?”

Thor started, “Well, I—“

“Except for Thor,” Tony said. “For obvious reasons.”

Clint decided to run this down. “Okay, so the Red Skull has some guy dressed as Cap and he’s filming this. Is this some weird propaganda thing?”

“Only one way to find out,” Natasha said. She hit play again. The Red Skull seemed to be making some sort of speech but without sound no one knew what was going on. He grabbed the fake Cap’s helmet, pulling the man’s face back. The Red Skull’s grin was toothy and white even with the camera so far away from the action. Then Schmidt unzipped his pants and forced the bound man’s head into his crotch. 

Natasha could not hit escape fast enough. 

The Avengers stood there in embarrassed horror. Steve’s face was bright crimson under his helmet. With Tony’s faceplate open it was obvious he was trying not to hyperventilate. Lightning crackled around Thor’s clenched fist. Only Clint could break the silence: “I did not need to know what the Red Skull’s dick looks like.” 

“That’s the only one, right?” Tony asked. He really wanted it to be the only one. 

“I don’t know,” Natasha responded. “That was only the first and there’s thirty files in here.” 

The Hulk’s voice was soft but it rumbled over them. “Hulk wants to smash something.”

“When we’re done you can smash this all you like,” Steve said, voice hard. He sucked in a deep breath, “Let’s get this over with. Scan through the rest of them, we need to see if there’s anything valuable.” 

Tony grimaced. “I’m not sure we’re going to get anything from Schmidt’s secret porn stash.” 

“I’m not either,” Steve admitted. “But I can’t take the risk no matter--” he couldn’t finish.

“I’ll just do a few quick searches in the middle of each file to see if it’s anything useful and Cap,” Natasha put her hand on her friend’s arm. “None of this will ever see the light of day again.”

Steve nodded and said a sincere “Thank you.”

The next few minutes were filled with silence as the team scanned through file after file. Hydra added sound recording during film number five so the unwilling audience could finally hear Schmidt’s grunts and groans as he abused the proxies for Captain America. Natasha clicked through quickly, only giving everyone a small glimpse into the Skull’s obsessed mind. The Skull demanded different sex acts from the proxies but there was no context as to who they were.

Were these men Hydra soldiers who willingly volunteered for their commander’s role-play? Or were these fake Captains prisoners brought in for Schmidt’s entertainment chosen solely because of their builds or a vague Aryan visage? The scenarios varied in the level of violence and degradation, each one worse than the next. The only constant was that none of the fake Captains ever took their cowls off. Even if the helmet was discarded, there was always a mask obscuring some part of the face. 

“What’s with that?” Clint finally asked, as they were at the end of the torturous files. At the others’ glazed looks he clarified: “The headgear thing? It just seems a little weird.”

Steve shrugged; this whole exercise was one of numb endurance. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I fought him hand to hand only a few times, I was mostly dealing with the factories.”

Natasha had a strange look on her face like she had an idea, but she didn’t share it. “We have one more. If there’s nothing on this one then I finish up with the drive.”

“And then Hulk smash?” Hulk asked. He said it with an eagerness born not of playfulness but of a dark need for vengeance against this machine that could hurt his friends.

“Yes,” Natasha said. She remembered a time when she had feared this green monstrosity; but now when she looked at him her eyes held an emotion she had once felt herself unworthy of. She held onto that affection, keeping it close to her chest for now. The only other one who knew its growing depth was Steve but he would hold his tongue, it wasn’t his place to tell. Natasha resolved that she wouldn’t make him keep that secret for long. “You can smash it all to hell.”

One more series of clicks and it would be over. It was in color, the Red Skull having decided half way through his personal collection that black and white wasn’t cutting it. It was yet another of what Clint inwardly dubbed “the blowjob scenarios.” The fake Cap was kneeling in front of the Red Skull, sucking cock. Natasha clicked forward, not wanting anyone to suffer more of it than necessary when suddenly the Red Skull pushed the other man away.

Something shifted in the Red Skull’s face as he stared at the mock-Captain America. There was no lust or triumph, merely fury. In one swift motion he drew his gun. There was a loud pop and the unfortunate proxy was struck right between the eyes. Blood spurted swift and red from the bullet wound as man jerked to the ground. The Red Skull zipped up his pants, screaming in German.

Steve and Natasha stared transfixed as the Red Skull ranted. Arnim Zola came in from off screen to drag the body away. There was no telling what happened to that poor bastard’s body. Wetness welled in the corners of Natasha’s eyes and Steve-- Steve was too frozen to react. They were the only ones who could translate what the madman was saying. 

“What kind of man does such a thing?” Thor shook his head. “I don’t understand.” 

“What’s he saying?” Tony asked.

“The eyes are wrong,” Natasha said, wiping at her eyes. “They aren’t defiant enough, too submissive. They’re wrong, all wrong. He needs more, he needs--”

“He needs the real thing,” Steve finished. He turned away from the computer, not letting anyone see his face. “There’s nothing here we want.”

Natasha composed herself; she was good at compartmentalizing. She finished the previous upload and with a few keystrokes erased everything. The precious drive filled with secrets slipped into a pocket on her suit. “It’s all yours,” she told the Hulk. She wanted as much distance between herself and the vile databanks as possible.

Hulk was too big to directly approach the computer. With his thick fingers he peeled the structure around the security station away, a gesture that was easy for a creature of his strength. 

Most feared the Hulk’s power, but not Thor. He approached the strongest Avenger. “Can I join you?” 

The Hulk tilted his head, looking down at Thor. “Puny god want smash too?” 

“Yes,” Thor said, eyes steely. “I too wish to see this place razed to the ground.”

The Hulk grinned, showing too many teeth. “Then we SMASH!” Massive fists flew into the computer equipment, sending plastic and metal flying. Thor joined in with a swing of his mighty hammer, sparks of righteous anger following every blow.

“That’s our cue to leave,” Tony announced. The remaining Avengers made their way back to the surface as their comrades destroyed the Hydra base behind them. The day was warm outside, a stark contrast to the air-conditioned chill of the stronghold. Tony, Clint, Natasha and Steve found a spot near the trees to wait for their friends’ fury to abate. 

Steve sat on the ground, back against a tree. He held the shield in front of him, as if it could protect him from everything that he had seen. The helmet was gone, revealing the young man who had experienced so much in such a short time. The haunted look in his eyes was unbearable. 

Natasha went to him. After the Invasion of New York they had been paired together on numerous missions. But it wasn’t until they had discovered how S.H.I.E.L.D. had been compromised that they had become close. Steve was the brother she had never had, one of the few she could trust. She hated the Red Skull for hurting him.

She found a place nearby, close but not touching. “Steve,” she started, waiting for him to look at her. “I’ve had that kind of violence threatened against me,” she said, remembering all of the honeypot operations that had gone wrong. “I’ve been lucky, managed to avoid anything too hairy. I know what it’s like to have someone look at you like an object.” Her training had tried to break her independence, her spirit; her friendship with Clint had brought it back. “But nothing has ever felt that personal.” Natasha meant it. Espionage was dangerous work, she never threw her whole self into it the same way Steve did being Cap. Red Skull had not just threatened Captain America, but Steve Rogers himself. “I’m so sorry.” 

When Steve didn’t respond right away, Clint added, “At least we know that he’s dead.”

That earned a reluctant laugh, it was more bitter than anything else. “Yeah,” Steve said, “There’s that.” There was nothing he could do about the men in the films. At this point if they weren’t killed by Schmidt they had died of old age and, to be honest, Steve didn’t want to know. He could only be stretched so thin and that train of thought was best left alone. What did concern him was who digitized those films, who had taken the time to archive them and how many Hydra operatives had watched them?

Did Rumlow or STRIKE—

His mind flinched away from finishing the thought. “You okay, Steve?” Tony asked, reading his friend’s face.

“No,” Steve said, “but I don’t want to talk about it. Not yet.”

“Okay,” Tony said, backing off. “When you’re ready—“

Steve took to his feet, snapping his shield onto his back. “I know.” He pulled his helmet back on tucking Steve away for the moment and bringing Captain America back to the forefront. He had good friends and good teammates, something he never thought he’d have again when he awoke in this century. When the time came he’d work through his feelings on what he saw today, but for right now he just wanted to watch Hydra’s work crumble to dust. 

As he stood facing the compound he could see the others flanking him in his periphery. Clint, Natasha and Tony stood by him today as they always would. Steve felt the tightness in his chest ease. He could get through this.

They waited.

**Author's Note:**

> *yes, the title is a reference to the Tijuana Bibles.


End file.
